An Evil Heart
by MusicMadtm
Summary: Darkness can hide in the obscurest places. Challenge for AdderClan: Poisoned


**Heyy! So, this is another one-shot for AdderClan: Poisoned. Read, review and enjoy!**

* * *

The painful writhing sensation had started in Larkwing's belly just a few days before, and it worried her a lot. Whisperwind had told her that she would be okay, and she could do nothing but trust in her mate's words. She was considering seeing Vinelight to check that she was in perfect health, but some little fear that spoke in the depths of her mind told her that there could be something seriously wrong with her. So, almost unwillingly, she stayed silent.

* * *

"Arggh!" Larkwing dropped to the soft floor of the training hollow as a jolt of agony stronger than fire seared through her body. Sweetpaw, her timid apprentice, rushed over to her mentor, who was not writhing on the floor with agony. "M-make it stop!" Larkwing gasped between spasms. Her belly twisted and writhed; she gagged and hacked but nothing came up. Her crazed limbs clawed at the floor around her, slashing out involuntarily with flailing claws. The peaceful forest was suddenly tainted with darkness.

The other cats in the training hollow had rushed off to fetch Vinelight, but Larkwing feared that she would never arrive in time. Her energy was already being sapped at an alarming rate; her movement was becoming weaker and weaker; her vision was starting to taint with blood red at the edges. She tried to choke out something, anything, but no sound would come from her jaws. She wanted so badly to find Whisperwind, to breathe in his scent one more time and tell him how much he mattered to her.

* * *

"I just can't see what's wrong with you, Larkwing." Vinelight looked gravely down onto the struggling golden she-cat. The pain that coursed through her hadn't subsided for hours, and she was left as a broken body, with barely enough energy to whimper from the agony that was slowly surging and growing. The red mist at the edges of her vision was creeping slowly further into her sight, tinting more and more with an eerie glow.

"Pain... m-make stop-p-lease…" Larkwing whispered, almost choking at the torturous agony in her belly. Vinelight shook her head, eyes brimming with pain.

"I can't give you anything because I don't know whether it will help or harm you." Larkwing shrieked; a small, broken noise that comes from one with all hope gone.

"Kill-me t-t-then." A dull glimmer appeared in Larkwing's violet eyes. "Can't-d-do this a-a-a-anymore!" Vinelight looked shocked, then bowed her head.

"I cannot do that." She murmured. "I could ease your pain though. But-" Vinelight fixed her steady gaze on the amethyst one before her. "It could harm you. Make it worse. Promise to me that if something does go wrong, that you understand that I only ever wanted to help." Larkwing nodded once; it could have been a spastic jerk, but the look in her eyes confirmed the promise to Vinelight. Quietly and swiftly, the brown and white medicine cat reached into her medicine stored and pulled out two glossy red drops. _Berries. _A thought drifted through Larkwing's broken mind.

Vinelight nudged them towards Larkwing's muzzle. "These should help." She meowed softly. Trembling, Larkwing stretched forward her muzzle and licked up the berries. The cold juice trickled down her throat. The red mist at the edges of her vision swallowed everything. The last thing Larkwing ever saw was Vinelight's amber eyes, glittering coldly as she watched the scene in front of her, not shifting a whisker to help.

* * *

_"__Larkwing?" I turn around. _

_"__Brightpool!" My mother is standing before me, her gentle green eyes glowing with love like they always used to. I bound up and nuzzle her, my heart aching. I've missed her so much! "Why are you here, Mother? Do you have a message for me?" I ask. The look in my mother's eyes unnerves me. _

_"__I'm here to take you to StarClan." She meows simply. My eyes widen. _

_"__I-I'm dead?" I stutter, my heart aching. Brightpool nods._

_"__Look below us." I turn my head to the floor and I see that it's not just the floor. Vinelight is sitting beside a limp body, with long, golden fur… _my fur. _I watch as she sits watching it for a few moments, then calls out. I cannot hear anything, but I can see her jaws moving and the wild look in her eyes, hiding the contempt and success that lingered moments before. Cats rush over to my body, wailing and shrieking noiselessly. My heart almost breaks as I see Sweetpaw slumped on the floor, her eyes dull and lifeless. Vinelight watches the scene calmly. _

_A surge of anger goes through me. "She killed me!" I spit to Brightpool. "She threw away my life like it was a useless piece of crow-food! Only StarClan should have the power to do that!" Birhgtpool surveys me with calm, but not indifferent gaze. _

_"__You are in StarClan now, Larkwing. If you wish, you have the power to take her life with the power StarClan possesses, we will not stop you." My mind stops short. Take her life? Do what she did to me, just for revenge? I almost immediately decide. _

_"__No." I meow. "I can't do that. But I will watch her from StarClan, and I will carefully make sure that no great joy will come her way. She doesn't deserve pleasure from taking my life."_

_Brightpool looks at me gravely. "She doesn't." She agreed. "But she already has taken pleasure from many others. Follow me." I follow my mother away into the starlight, casting one last glance at my Clan, my old home, which I will never live in again. _

* * *

And watch over her, Larkwing did. She found out gradually that she was not the only RippleClan cat to have suffered from Vinelight's murderous spirit. Many of her Clanmates had gone the same way Larkwing had herself, and many more Clanmates came to join her. Those cats watched Vinelight, and made sure no great joy came to her again. And, when her time came to die, they made sure that Vinelight never made the ranks of StarClan.


End file.
